


Sixteen

by SQ (proteinscollide)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2002-11-13
Updated: 2002-11-13
Packaged: 2017-11-23 05:28:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/618613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/proteinscollide/pseuds/SQ
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ginny gets a belated present, because Weasleys never ask for too much.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sixteen

Christmas break when she's sixteen and still never been kissed. There's snow falling outside the dorm window when she wakes up, and she lies there too warm under three layers and thinks of never moving ever again. The room is empty of people but full of presence - lace slips and textbooks and makeup jars on almost every available surface, girlish debris. Ginny's corner is fairly neat, because she doesn't own nearly enough to spread out.

It’s Christmas Day, but she already knows what her gifts are. A new jumper to keep her warm and her parents have included a pair of tights as well. There’s a new dress for special occasions; Bill hinted so in his last letter. Earrings she got three days ago when the owl swooped unexpectedly into her lap at breakfast.; they don’t match anything, because Charlie likes original pieces, and wearing them makes Ginny think of hand-me-downs even when they shone like new in their packaging. Ron and the twins always give sweets, things they want for themselves but feel generous for not having kept for themselves. Percy bought her textbooks this year with his last Christmas bonus, and she didn't tell him how dorky it was or that she almost cried when she found out. She just kissed him on the forehead and told him to save his money wisely for things he wanted. He'd smiled at her then, and she knew she'd done the right thing. 

All in all things are good. She knows she is loved and doted on in her family's own way and she has almost everything she'd ever wanted up to now. She tries to be happy, because she was raised to be grateful for the little things in life; Merlin knew Weasleys never asked for too much. 

** 

Harry kisses her for the first time that day, gives her first kiss ever. Agonisingly slow, fingers fumbling near her chin; he presses too hard at the side of her neck for a while at the start too. But she doesn't say anything, licks her chapped lips, then places them to his, breathes him in. Harry sighs into her hair, knows she is giving him permission to continue; tugs her towards his chest as he eases back onto a cushion and she follows, she lets him, and it's a present she hasn't expected for years. 

She hears people walking by because the dry air gives the carpet crackle, and she doesn’t care that anyone can see them. Curled around each other by the window, lips and little moans and his fingers sliding lower on her back as if she’s too stupid to understand what he wants. There’s ice on the panes and it seems to seep all around her, just as Harry is. 

** 

"Was that - are you - were you making out with my sister, just then?" Ron manages to say the words at dinner, and everybody speaks softer suddenly, because it's a small table, and they want to hear and not hear at the same time. 

"Yes," Harry says. 

Ron's fist comes out of nowhere, except that Harry must have known it was coming, because he fights it, ducks out of its way at the last moment. Holds Ron by the wrist and forces it back to Ron’s side. Harry doesn't take anything lying down, even for his best friend. "Even your family thought it was funny that she had a crush on me. I'm not doing anything wrong. You should know that." 

"I know that you're not interested in my sister, and you have never been interested. I know that if you were really my friend you would have let me hit you." Ron slides out from behind the wooden bench, murmuring his excuses to the teachers, and leaves the hall. Harry watches him go without blinking. Conversations stutter and hum behind him, until he turns to smile reassuringly at Ginny. It makes her insides shrivel, as much as she wants to, but she smiles back as if words couldn't slap her across the face and make her feel black and blue already. 

** 

Ginny watches Harry’s face when everyone returns from the holidays. Makes no effort to hide that she analyses his reaction to each seventh year student as they trickle through the hall doors. She doesn’t catch anything unusual, and she wasn’t really expecting to. He draws her to him with an arm thrown lazily around her as she walks past to greet some friends, and she sits down obediently next to him. They are so close her thigh slides against the grey cotton of his slacks and Hermione shoots her a sharp glance in the middle of describing a muggle movie she saw with her parents. 

"Really, Ginny, you’re almost sitting in his lap," Hermione says in her most schoolmarm-ish voice at the end of her tale and Ginny thinks _You and Ron_ but doesn’t finish the thought. She pulls her skirt towards her knees though, and makes to shift to her right; but Harry anticipates, fingers splayed in the curve of her waist to hold her there. She frowns, and suddenly all she can hear is Ron’s angry voice again, even though his mouth is closed, he’s sitting opposite her gazing at a knot in the wood on the table instead. 

"Harry, I -" and there are so many ways she could finish that sentence right now: _think I don’t really like you don’t understand what we think we’re doing think I asked too much or maybe for the wrong thing_. But she chooses "- really need to see Cecilia about the potions assignment, you know, the one I was working on last night." And Ginny pretends to not see the weariness in Ron’s eyes as she gently pries Harry’s fingers from her side. 

** 

Hermione squirms and says "No, Ron, my parents -" when he pops a chocolate heart into her mouth; Ron finishes "- aren’t here, are they?" and Hermione’s lips are closing over his gift anyway. She looks up at Ginny’s red-headed clumsy brother like he’s _special_ instead of being _Ron_ , and Ginny’s heart wrenches. She leans back against the solid warmth of Harry and places a hand softly on his wrist; he immediately places his arms around her. Almost two months and they have their signals down. People no longer talk to her but to some entity called ’Ginny-and-Harry’ instead. She heard some lower years talking about her yesterday though, and the animosity was directed only at her. She had thought, hidden in the shadows, that it was funny how people only saw what they wanted. 

Harry’s lips brush against the base of her neck, and she shivers, forgetting her train of thought, watches Hermione laughing gently with her brother in front of the fire instead. They won’t tell each other in words how they feel, not even on the most romantic day of the year, and Ginny cheers them on in her head as Harry’s hands draw circles on her stomach, a caress and a brand at the same time. 

** 

"Do you think she even knows?" and Ginny recoils, ducks back behind the shelf she had been perusing. There’s a pause, and then she can hear a collar being pushed aside, a whisper of cloth as her brother stops to kiss Hermione’s collarbone. She should feel bad, peering at them from the tops of leather spines, but she feels they are talking about her, and she wants to hear. She realises right then that they’ve probably been doing this behind everyone’s back - making out secretly, talking about Ginny - and she feels grimly pleased to be the first to know. 

"Yeah. That something’s not quite right. Ginny’s not that stupid." and she thinks dryly _Thanks for the vote of confidence, Ron_. 

"Well? Should we say anything to her - ow!" Some giggling, more kissing, and for a moment Ginny thinks she should move on now, nothing more for her here. Then, Ron comes up for air perhaps, says "Ginny. She’s her own person. They’re both fools, but I can’t - we can’t-" Too long a silence, then he shrugs, leans down to hold Hermione closer and mutters, "She’ll learn." 

It’s the finality that breaks her. She’s struggling for breath by the time she makes it out of the library, chin to her chest because she’s crying and she doesn’t want others to see, all the way back to the portrait hole. Three steps in and he’s standing there in front of her, big grin and grass smells from Quidditch practice. Eyes that go from twinkling to concerned when he lifts her to face him; he moves to hug her, and she has time to think _green for envy_ before she pushes away from him and runs up the stairs to her dorm. 

** 

Hermione hands her a four-leaf clover the next morning at breakfast. It smells freshly picked and the older girl whispers quickly that there’s a patch of them to the far side of the lake, before taking her seat next to Ron. Ginny goes down at lunch with her friends and they find daisies there too; place them behind ears and braid them into each other’s hair. She almost forgets, but when she turns out her pocket at the end of the day she finds the clover. Its edges are already brown, but she glues it into her diary for safekeeping anyway. 

END


End file.
